The Young Crazed Peelings Interview
Details Interviewee '- Benji Ward (The Young Crazed Peelings) '''Interviewer '- Johan (IFK) '''Forum Post Date - 13th October 2009 Original Thread '- Click here Interview '''Next up is no less than top of the Prem young crazed peelings. Thought I had to publish it before Q16 isn’t valid anymore ;) ' '1. Who is Benjie? ' I'm a 27 year old Plymouth Argyle supporter now living in Newbury after growing up in Cornwall. I'm a web/software developer and it enables me to spend lots of time 'working' on TM throughout the day ;) '2. When you started out in TM did you have any early plans and did they go like you wanted? ' Well to be honest I thought I'd give it a go after becoming pretty bored with Hattrick (which I still play) and didn't have a specific plan but after a season I decided upon going down the youth development route. This was tricky at first as I had a lot of older players so had to blood them earlier than liked and it saw us suffer relegation from 2.2. However the routine gained from this experience was invaluable for those players as some of them are still playing for me today. I could have used older players and struggled to stay up for a couple of seasons or as it was, build up routine in a lower division and come back stronger. '3. If you started again with a new club would you do the exact same things? ' I was lucky in the fact that I developed my YD and TG from the day I started so I wasn't behind as such but I think I would try and blend promising youths with older players a bit better. Also try to build greater depth in my squad to take account of injuries/suspensions more than I have done in the past. Also to start with I never really scouted anyone and didn't take account of key skills, just basing them on 'real life' skills I'd assume would be good for positions. '4. Any advice for a new manager starting the game today? ' I think it is imperative to get your TG up to a good standard followed by your YD, also to get a decent scout or two and scan the transfer list to get in some good prospects before your YD is good enough to produce decent players of your own. Also don't run before you can walk and try and rush development of your club - the best method is to improve organically in the long run. This may be either by only replacing your weakest player with a player that will become one of your best players or not paying out stupid transfer fees on world class players. Also don't be afraid to change your formation, always try and put your best players out that are available - if this means changing formation then do it! Also simply read the user guide a lot to get a good understanding of the game. '5. Happy with your YD so far and the results from it? ' Very happy in the fact some of my original decent youth players are still in my first team such as Rob Perry, Jack Sharp and Andrew Davies. I've been lucky in the fact I've received a decent player in a position that was occupied by a player who was getting on a bit so I've been able to ease them into the side gradually. Tim Weaver has turned into a quality player which meant a change of formation to accommodate him but this was achieved without too much fuss. '6. YD or TG what’s the most important in your opinion and why? ' Personally I think it’s your TG as I've not really noticed much of a difference between YD level 8 and 10. I know it’s not a massive difference but I'd prefer to get the maximum gain possible out of training. You can always bring in youths from outside and train them up hence why your own TG is vitally important. '7. How much time do you spend on TM every day/week? ' It varies but I'm on quite a bit during the day due to the nature of my work be it hanging around in the forum or approving teams - the actual time I spend on my team depends on injuries to players or whether I have any money to spend! '8. If you could hack Thomas account for a day and change TM at your will what would you change and what things would you implement? ' I would implement a more advanced training system, e.g. daily training plans which would have less of a random effect overall but the same gains over a week as it does now. I'm not sure if it would be a good idea in the long run as players would become carbon copies of each other as everyone would train up key skills, the current method does have a random element which is good from a game play perspective. I'd also make all my players have 100 routine and 100% adaptability ;) '9. Tactics do they matter or is it only down to having the best players available? ' I would say it matters for some games, although for example from experience if you have 2 OMC's against you, you don't need 2 DMC's to combat them as 1 DMC would cater for each of their attacks. I would look more at the skills of players your own players are likely to come up against and try to exploit them. E.g. if a team's defenders have low heading then I'd play wing play in order to pummel them with crosses as my wingers are fairly decent. '10. What is the most important position and why? ' FC - although one thing I've not worked out is why certain forwards can play well on their own and not with a strike partner and vice versa. Without a decent striker you're not going to score goals which you need to win matches. A good defence is vitally important too but this is more of a unit rather than a stand out position. '11. What key skills is needed for that position(s) and why? ' As I tend to play a lone striker...Strength, finishing, heading, long shots, work rate position, technique are the main ones I look for, passing and pace are desirable too. '''12. You have any training tips to share for your players? Try and organise your players into groups and keep trying to find decent coaches - it takes time but it’s worth it to get a coach training the correct key skills for your groups. For example I organise my players into GK, OMC's, ML/OML, Forwards, DC/MC/DMC's and DL/DML/ML. 13. TM is a great game, what do you like most about it? ' The community aspect is a great pull; compared to games like Hattrick where you hardly interact with teams there is so much more banter in TM. The randomness although we hate it, does provide a good spark in games and also the fact that you see tangible results from training and developing youths over a period of time keeps you sucked in. I find myself looking forward to Tuesday mornings to check out how my training has got on! '''14. New ME on the way are you looking forward to it? ' Well if the test server is anything to go by then yep, as my side seemed to do quite well although it's hard to gauge as other managers were testing as much as myself. '15. Do you think routine is important? ' Yep, from comparing results between my b-team and first team I think it has some impact which is why I like my players to have a decent level of routine. I think its very important to have your players performing consistently at a high level otherwise you may end up losing a game due to a mistake from a player performing poorly. '16. Top of the Prem, is this your season? ' Well...I'd like to hope so but there's a long way to go yet. I could quite easily lose the next 20 games and be sucked into a relegation battle but it’s encouraging to take 26 points from the first 30. I'd rather get to the 'safety' barrier of around 45 points as soon as possible first, although it'd be nice to get back into Europe. '17. Who’s your main rivals when its 2-3 games left to play? ' I'm not sure really as the division changes most seasons from teams competing to which teams are fighting out for Europe/Relegation. I've normally hovered around mid table in the Premier League where there tends to be 5/6 teams on the same number of points. '18. A Cup win and one win in Europe, if you only could choose one which of them would it be? ' I'd have to take the European win. If only for the fact we are only the second English club to do it. The manner in which we did it was impressive as I think we averaged nearly 3 goals a game doing so! '19. England, finished second in the elections this time are you going for it again next time? ' I think so...I was surprised by the amount of votes I got this year and only decided at the last minute to go for it with the intention of 'testing the water' to see what sort of interest I'd generate for a future attempt. I think the right man won the vote as Marcus has done a great job so far and I'm glad he has the opportunity to continue this for the next two seasons. Hopefully we will be even stronger next time the elections come around. '20. "Dream" is like a dream, any other youths coming up who will be fit to lace his boots in the future? ' Well I don't think any will hit the heights that Dream has but Tony Lee is yet to bloom and has already hit 50k ASI so will be an excellent DL when fully developed. I've got a young striker called Les Avery who has nearly 2 years of bloom left and is developing really well, also an OMC called William Ward and a DMR/MR called Matt Jenas. '21. What’s your best moment in TM so far? Was it a special game, season or a certain youth pull? ' I'd have to say winning the UETA Cup, just from the fact it was a long hard slog to keep winning knock out games in Europe against quality sides and doing it in a convincing manner. I managed to pull Weaver and Lee within 2 weeks of each other two which was a sweet feeling too! '''Thanks a lot Benjie!